Reviews for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's "Shadows" (2011)

* "The Miami-born composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, first woman to earn a Pulitzer Prize for music and the first woman to earn a composition doctorate at Juilliard, remains busily composing in her 70s. The part-time Pompano Beach resident's piano concerto Shadows, which premiered in 2011, had its first Florida performances this past week on the programs of the South Florida Symphony. Pianist Jeffrey Biegel was the soloist in the four-concert series, which on March 30 took place in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

Zwilich switched to a post-Romantic style in the 1980s after years of fashionable atonalism, and that decision, which has become more or less mainstream for others composers in the second decade of the 21st century, helped keep her profile high. South Florida Symphony conductor Sebrina Maria Alfonso has made the programming of Zwilich's music a relatively regular occurrence; her Septet for string quartet and piano trio was on one of the orchestra's chamber music programs in January.

The Zwilich of Shadows is recognizably the same composer as the one of the Septet in its unashamed reference to popular music styles, and that no doubt helped sell it to the Broward audience, which received it enthusiastically. Pianist Biegel gave the concerto every attention, engaging with it in a passionate manner that added excitement to the performance.

The idea of the concerto was a reflection on the plural cultural heritage of the United States, and Zwilich said in brief remarks Saturday night that Latin and African-American styles would be part of the mix. The first movement was strongly reminiscent of Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, with the same kind of mysterious impressionist coloring in the orchestra and dramatic statements in the piano. It had a langorous Latinate flavor with some harmonic bite that Biegel played with strength and decisiveness.

While the concerto is virtuosic, especially in the last movement, it's not flashy; the display is an outgrowth of a positive energy that runs through the whole work. The second movement, which has a walking minor-third back-and-forth pattern meant to evoke traditional New Orleans music, had a feeling of bluesy song and heavy-lidded cool, and featured some terrific principal horn playing, with dramatic outbursts at the top of the instrument's register.

The third movement evoked George Gershwin’s Concerto in F, with the piano building up to the same jazz-chord two-note swing shout that set Gershwin’s motor in motion, and which served much the same purpose here. Biegel played with great energy and bravura, and the musical language, while reminiscent of Gershwin, had a festive, joyous color that was fun to listen to."

Greg Stepanich – Palm Beach ArtsPaper – April 8, 2014

* "Next came the Boston-area premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's (1939 –) Shadows, with Jeffrey Biegel at the piano. Pro Arte is part of a consortium which helped commissioned this work and Biegel is the dedicatee and sole performer to date. Biegel proposed the title, thinking of the shadows of French heritage which marks New Orleans (site of the work's first performance in October 2011 with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Carlos Miguel Prieto). Zwilich played off this idea and created a meditation on global migration and ancestral heritage more broadly. Biegel and Rhodes discussed some of this background before performing this concerto-in-all-but-name. The 20-minute work is in three movements. The beginning is subdued, misty, with pizzicato chords over sustained lower strings, building to the piano entrance; this A-section returns at the end of the movement, after a B-section that includes a lovely bassoon dirge. The idiom includes early rag time and New Orleans jazz references, while the harmonic language remains classically that of the 20th-century. The second movement opens with a New Orleans two-step rhythm, recognizable from jazz funeral processions; the brass chorale ushers in the piano with a swinging, syncopated, lilting melody. Here most especially I was reminded of the Shostakovich Jazz Suites; Zwilich captures a similar spirit in her writing. The third and final movement highlights rhythmic propulsion, and expands on usual brass and piano technique. Biegel and Pro Arte gave a captivating, energetic, and approachable reading of Shadows, to the great pleasure of those in the audience. Rhodes announced that this new piece was worked up to such a high level of performance on only one rehearsal, due to the events of last week; I commend all for coming together to give such a wonderful and wide-ranging performance."

Cashman Kerr Prince, trained in Classics and Comparative Literature, is now a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Classical Studies at Wellesley College. He is also a cellist of some accomplishment, currently playing with the Brookline Symphony Orchestra.

Cashman Kerr Prince – Classical-Scene.com – April 22, 2013

* "This past Saturday, the LPO showcased its raw emotional power and savvy eclecticism in a program that ranged across three centuries: Tchaikovsky, Messiaen and the world premiere of a new work by Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

Zwilich's blues-drenched, three-movement "Shadows for Piano and Orchestra" was packed with ear-catching effects. How often do you hear en masse strumming from three string sections - cellos, violas and double-basses? Snaking bassoon solos are equally rare - so special kudos go to LPO principal Matthew McDonald. Principal clarinet Robyn Jones unleashed klezmer wails in the third movement, leading her colleagues in some not-so-classical syncopated passages. Percussionist Dave Salay also pulled off a neat trick, reining in the potential bombast of his trap set, while going head-to-head with piano soloist Jeffrey Biegel. Biegel helped to assemble the consortium of eight orchestras that commissioned "Shadows," and his commitment was palpable on Saturday. He brought Gershwin-honed chops to a composition that lofted Tin Pan Alley into deep space with tart harmonies, glassy tone clusters and keyboard-spanning runs. I have only one complaint about the piece: Zwilich should have had Biegel shout "Great Balls of Fire" during the rocking finale."

The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 1, 2011.

* "...The newest piece sounded in many ways the oldest. "Shadows," by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, is a piano concerto written for a consortium of orchestras and spearheaded by the soloist Jeffrey Biegel, and it is almost painfully eager to please with tonality, licks of jazz and repetitions of motif combining to invite the audience in and provide clear markers to guide them along the way. With its emphasis on majestic, swelling statements, it also telegraphs that it speaks the time-honored language of classical music, thank you very much. All this adds up to something pleasant but anodyne...."

Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, September 23, 2012.